Monday, September 17, 2007

Welcome!

Ladies, Gentlemen, Friends, Romans, Countrymen:

It's time to get funky.

About two years ago, I was offered the opportunity to program a channel of Live365 radio. At the time, Live365 was trying to diversify their programming, especially in the areas of funk/soul/jazz. My boss, knowing I was a huge fan of old, rare funky records, recommended me to one of the higher-ups. I was given carte blanche, so to speak--a blank canvas, hundreds of megs of upload space, and a potential worldwide audience for anyone craving real, organic, raw, criminally underappreciated, how-has-this-not-been-sampled-yet, grooves and breaks. (Or, more precisely, I-Never-Knew-That's-Where-It-Got-Sampled-From.) The idea was: what would a radio station that I wanted to hear sound like??

I spent weeks ripping some of my favorite gems from 45's and 12-inch records I had accumulated since moving back to LA in 2000. I ended up with a playlist just over 10 hours long, launched it, and let the internet do the rest. With absolutely no promotion (aside from some word-of-mouth amongst my friends), the station became one of the top-rated funk websites in the Live365 universe. Tracking my geo stats, I found that I suddenly had regular listeners in countries like Japan, Germany, Britain, Brazil, and Estonia. (Estonia? Really?) Many of the listeners were kind enough to send emails thanking me for opening their ears (and eyes) to these forgotten little gems--or, as i liked to call them--Dusty Nuggets. It was really gratifying.

These are the songs that time, and an-often cruel, indifferent industry, has largely forgotten. Many of these tracks have never even been available on CD. So keep checking in for some of my all-time favorite funky gems, from classic Meters stuff to more contemporary releases, straight from the crates. Enjoy, tap your toes, and let the groove move you.